Once in a while a hand crosses my path that makes me go “hmmm.”
Every Friday on our Ante Up PokerCast we dissect a Hand of the Week that’s sent in from one of our listeners, and this time it was Brian Diebold of Lithia, Fla., who gave us a doozy.
Something that’s very common in southern poker rooms is the Aces Cracked promotion. If you have pocket aces and lose the house pays you $100. In most circles it’s known as “Aces Cracked Gets a Rack.”
Brian was playing in one of our local cardrooms when the following hand happened, and I’ll let him describe it.
“Table is $1-$2 NLHE, nine-handed. I had been sitting there for about an hour and played only two hands, had shown down both (9-9 and Q-Q). Starting stacks were all about $100; I had $143. The small blind and big blind were both a little less than $60. I was UTG with
Well, this was an amazing hand on many levels, so let’s just start at the beginning. As most of us know a 3X raise in live cardroom cash games almost never thins the field enough to get heads-up or three-handed, despite it being the proper amount to raise. But, in Brian’s case, only legitimate hands (that had money invested as well) called him and any raise other than a shove likely wouldn’t have made 9-9 or J-J fold. So the raise amount is insignificant here. Once the blinds called that’s when the real fun begins as normal poker strategy gets skewed beyond recognition.
The best part about this situation for Brian is the callers had less than $60, so he was freerolling. Why? He had a $100 insurance policy under his card protector. There’s an argument for shoving preflop since no one had Brian covered. At worst he’d break even. But if one of the smaller stacks would’ve called a preflop shove (in this case the J-J) he would’ve netted around $40 from the promotion after the set hit the flop. But in poker we like to maximize our profits, so I agree with raising a normal amount here. Limping has the same effect as shoving, so I disagree with this play as well.
After the flop, things get tricky. It’s a very coordinated board (
On our pokercast I initially said I felt he should’ve shoved because if he were to get called it likely would be by one opponent and he’d guarantee himself at least $40 profit (with a chance to win about $70). But then I acquiesced and felt a tiny bet to string them along might allow me to win more than $40 should they call and I still win the pot. By betting $15 and getting called he essentially secured at least $40 in the middle (not counting his $21 in the pot). This way if he wins the hand he’ll get at least what he would’ve won had disaster struck. There’s also the argument for just checking or calling on every street. This way you commit as few chips as possible and you give them every chance to beat you for the cheapest price. The problem here is, if no one has a hand and no one bets then you just win about $18. “What a mind-bender!” as my co-host Scott Long said during the show.
When the turn comes the
The river bet, however, is another story. Both players checked to him after the
He made $54 on the hand, but had he taken the check-or-call line of action, he might’ve maximized his profit. In conclusion, an old football adage comes to mind: The best offense is a good defense. I think Brian should’ve taken the passive approach and squeezed the money from the promotion. Had he checked the flop, the SB still would’ve only bet $10 on the turn (with a call from the BB). Since the blinds had checked the river there’s no denying they would’ve checked the river in a scenario where Brian didn’t bet the flop. Had this been the case Brian would’ve only committed $16 to this hand and netted $84.
Of course all of this advice comes after knowing the cards involved. But even if the blinds didn’t have monster hands, Brian saw a very coordinated flop that only got more dangerous on the turn. There’s no reason to bet this hand, and every reason to let them catch up for a cheap price.
— Email Chris at chris@anteupmagazine.com.